Lost
by The Winged Cat
Summary: When the Dragonborn falls through a portal in the Nordic ruins of Jorundr, she finds herself in a world not too different from her own. In order to find her way home, though, she must travel all over a strange land with the last Grey Wardens, and face an enemy perhaps more terrifying than the World-Eater.
1. Prologue

"Do I really have to stick my hand into that messy creature? Isn't there some other way to get the blood for the Joining?" complained Daveth to Alistair.

Alistair rolled his eyes. "Well, if there was another way, I would know about it. Ask Duncan when we get back to Ostagar."

Daveth groaned at Alistair. Araey chuckled at the comment. Ser Jory raised an eye brow at her. She knew he hadn't gotten over the fact that she was a woman and a Dalish elf too. She returned his look with a bit more exaggeration. The mission was already halfway done and she felt wearier than the rest of the party looked. She cursed the blight disease that weakened her body.

When Daveth was finished trying to gather the darkspawn ichor without soiling his armor, Alistair started them on their way to gather the documents. Araey fell in line beside Daveth who stared at her like a diseased specimen, which she unfortunately was. She tried to ease the tension, but thankfully Jory asked Alistair, "Where exactly is the Grey Warden fortress?"

"Yeah, all we know is that it's somewhere in the Wilds." Daveth said. "It would be nice to have an exact location once in a while."

"It should be up the hill somewhere over there," Alistair said while pointing to the left. "Even I don't know the exact location. I've never been there."

_Why does Duncan want us to get these documents if they're just old treaties?_Araey pondered this. She opened her mouth to ask Alistair but wound up dropping it even further when a dark figure fell out of the sky.

"What was THAT?!" Alistair's face showed pure shock with ditto expressions on the rest of their faces. Jory was the first to run toward the area the figure fell. Outrunning Jory wasn't as simple as it was before she was blighted, but she still managed to make it there before him. She was surprised at what she saw.

The figure was obviously female with a petite, lithe body. She was wearing a set of dark plate armor without a helmet, giving Araey a good view of her face, which is what stunned her. The woman sprawled on the ground had the tail and face of a cat.


	2. Chapter 1

The ruins of Jorundr were the most complex ruins Rhanna had ever tried to pass through. Hearing about the ruins from a traveler in Shor's Stone, she decided to investigate further and enter the ruins herself. So far, she had expected to run across a dragon priest with the amount of draugr that inhabited the halls and caverns, along with the difficult puzzles blocking access to many doors that she had been trying to get to.

That was all behind her now as she slunk her way down a fairly clear hallway to a large door at the end of a story room unlike any she had ever seen. The carvings on the walls were unusual. Pictures of people, Nords most likely, fighting in battles against creatures that she had never read nor heard about. Creatures that looked more vile than daedra. One depicted humans and what looked like Bosmer fighting alongside short, stocky, man-like beings. What they were fighting though made Rhanna pause. They were fighting a large dragon; a dragon that looked as if though a disease had corrupted and twisted it. Rhanna quickly turned away from the picture.

She headed for the door at the end of the hall and studied it. The door was unlike any puzzle door she had solved. Unlike the other puzzle doors, this one didn't have a dragon claw key, but it did have an odd sort of puzzle that had different runes in a series of lines. Rhanna looked around the room for a key of some sort that could help her figure out the puzzle. She looked in every corner and chanced looking at the carvings for clues as well. When Rhanna found nothing within the first ten looks around the room, she went back to door and studied the puzzle a bit more closely. The puzzle had two rows of runes that had nine runes in each row. Without a clue to what the runes were supposed to mean, she went back to surveying the hall.

This time, she looked on the other side of hall. The wall's carvings portrayed intricately carved immense castles and fortresses that stood looking over vast countrysides or looked out over cliffs. Rhanna also saw animals that looked like lion-bodied hawks soaring around the keeps. She finally noticed the guards on the roofs and turrets. Their carved expressions showed them looking over the horizon with a sense of undying vigilance. Vigilance. Rhanna's eyes went wide and her ears perked up as she counted the characters in her head. Vigilance had nine characters. There were nine runic characters on the door. Rhanna finally knew with certainty that _vigilance_ is the key. _But where to look? _She had to find the translation for _vigilance_ somewhere in the hall. She set to work searching the hall for anything that may point to a translation.

After what seemed like an hour of searching, Rhanna slumped over by the door. Her tail started to twitch with frustration as she searched for another way to open the door other than by trial and error. Seeing no other way, she got up. She thought to use Unrelenting Force, but she doubted the Shout would do anything other than crash against the door. She then thought of using the Wabbajack, but that might only work on living things. She sighed and looked at the first rune pair. From her time exploring ancient ruins, she got better at recognizing different alphabets, but this one stumped her. She had no idea what these meant. Hopefully she would know when she pressed the right one.

She took a deep breath and set her fingertips on the top rune. Slowly she pressed the rune. She got ready to dodge when she heard the rune click. Rhanna didn't realize she had held her breath until air rushed out of her lungs. She went on to the next set, trying not to think of what might happen if she messed up any more. Rhanna inched her hand toward the bottom rune this time, positioning herself so she can dodge any poison darts. The rune was pressed until it was flush with the surrounding door. She barely heard the whistle before she jumped away. She stood watching as more and more darts shot out of hidden holes aimed at the spot on the floor she was at earlier. When the darts were finished trying to kill her, she went back to the door to finish the puzzle.

After messing up the sixth and eighth characters and pressing the ninth rune into place, the door started to quake as it split down the middle and opened. Ears back and spine stiff, hand on her sword hilt, Rhanna slowly made her way into the now accessible room. The room was littered with old, ruined books that sat on shelves, on the floor, and on top of tables. It was considerably smaller than the rooms she had previously investigated, but took on an eerier feel from the glowing hole on the floor at the back of the room. Dark blue light seeped from the swirling vortex inside, lighting the room with its glow. Rhanna crept to the vortex, mindful of any draugr that would be more than happy to kill her. Yet the vortex kept drawing her attention. She was so enveloped in watching the vortex that Rhanna didn't realize she was being shoved until she plunged headfirst into the vortex and fell from a perfectly blue sky.


	3. Chapter 2

_What is that?_

_I don't know what it is; does someone know where it came from or how to help it? _

_It just fell from the sky!_

_We know that Jory does anyone- Hey! Where are you going?_

The voices were distant but close enough that Rhanna could make out what they were saying. Her consciousness started slipping and she could barely make out the last words.

_What are you putting under its nose?_

Before she could even hope to process those words a sharp, tangy, horrible smelling scent filled her nostrils and jolted her awake, coughing from the putrid scent. She looked around at her surroundings, making sure to keep her nose covered. It didn't help. Four people stood staring at her, and she felt more than obliged to stare at them back. The party was made up of three humans along with an elf who was crouching with cupped hands. They were all holding their noses and gagging except for the elf, who Rhanna finally realized was the one who woke her; she held the horrible smelling plant.

Rhanna was about to ask where she was when a tall, dark-haired man with a mischievous–looking face said, "Well, you don't think it's a Witch o' the Wilds, do you? I mean, it's a giant cat that just dropped from nowhere."

Rhanna was very used to being called an "it" back in Skyrim but for some reason, being called "it" felt uncalled for coming from this stranger's mouth. She growled, "This _it_ has a name and would prefer my name be used."

This made the men step back. The first man with a greatsword strapped to his back had a frightened expression on his face, while the twitchy, dark-haired man next to him looked like a pot had smacked his face. The last man had dark blonde hair and an expression very similar to that of worry, part of it for him and his party, but the other part for her, interestingly. Her golden eyes locked back onto the dark-haired man as he whispered, "It can talk."

"Of course I can talk. Have you lived under a rock or a chunk of ice for the past three eras? All Khajiit can talk like a normal man." Rhanna spat the words as Twitchy, as she started to call him because of his twitching hands, displayed the pan-smacked face he wore not ten seconds ago.

"Khajiit?" The blonde-haired man looked truly dumbfounded. "What in Andraste is a Khajiit?"

"Obviously the one who just woke up."

Rhanna had forgotten about the elven woman traveling with them, and apparently, so did her colleagues. Twitchy looked at her with a bit more surprise, and if Rhanna was seeing correctly, a tinge of suspicion. He replied, "You know what it is?"

The elf, with purposely unmasked annoyance, responded. "Yes, we met two years ago while I was on a hunting trip looking for a white flying boar with green scales covering its snout. It also breathed fire. She introduced herself and we then had tea with a kind Tevinter magister."

"Well, you don't have to go making fun of it. Unless it did fall out of the sky two years ago and helped you catch a fire-breathing wild boar."

The elf rolled her eyes at Twitchy's comment then looked at Rhanna and saw the look of confusion displayed on her face. "You do know who the Tevinter magisters are, right?"

"Tevinter, who doesn't know about it?" the blonde one added, then noticed Rhanna's face. "You really don't know what Tevinter is, do you?"

"If I knew what this 'Tevinter' was, don't you think you would know what a Khajiit was?" Rhanna asked. She didn't like being the baffled one now.

The blonde man nodded in agreement, and replied, "Good point. I guess we didn't realize how new this must be, considering you just fell out of the sky."

The nervous-looking man with the two-handed greatsword finally spoke. "That thing fell out of the sky and now you're suggesting we help it? I don't know about that, Alistair. Daveth may be right."

The one named Alistair replied, "Well, either we help her or her gets lost in the swamp and killed by the darkspawn horde. I say her chances are better with us."

Twitchy, now known to Rhanna as Daveth, eyed Alistair suspiciously and Alistair returned the stare. The others of the party watched the exchange intently. Rhanna started to grow restless.

"If I am to be traveling with you then maybe I should know who all of you are and what you're doing. My name is Rhanna by the way." Rhanna inquired, watching the exchange finally break apart.

Daveth sighed. Alistair then turned to Rhanna and addressed her. "Nice to meet you Rhanna. My name is Alistair. This is Sir Jory," he pointed to the nervous man with the big sword, "Daveth," the man with the dark hair and mischievous face, "and Araey," finally pointing to the elven women. She nodded her head in greeting. It was now that Rhanna finally noticed the tattoos that covered her face. Alistair continued, "As for what we are doing on the other hand, we are retrieving some documents from a ruin up ahead. Care to join us?"


End file.
